After a tough start to the year, defensive efforts like Taylah Lea’s have helped Werribee bounce back with consecutive wins in the Women’s Big V basketball. 83812_05 Picture: MATHEW LYN
By LIAM TWOMEY
THE Werribee Devils Women’s Basketball side is proving it’s never too late to launch a comeback as the Division Two season draws to a close.
Through the first 13 rounds of the season the Devils were on the losing end on every occasion as a combination of player injury and availability took its toll.
However in the last two weeks something has clicked for Werribee with back-to-back wins against top four teams, impressing coach Brant Lowry.
“Yeah it’s been good. The difference has really been having that consistency to our team in getting these wins on the board,” he said.
“I think if you compare that to the start of the year I don’t think we had one week where we played with the same team. Having that core group of girls there has certainly helped.
“Injury, people’s work and time commitments, it was really a bit of everything. We’ve had to change our game plan accordingly and that takes a while to learn.”
The Devils are one of the younger teams in the competition and Lowry said gaining an increased level of experience in the Big V would be a key to the side performing well in the future.
“I think it just comes down to their experience and knowing how to win and having that consistency on the court,” he said.
“In the last couple of games we have gone from being down by 10 points to catching up and holding on to a lead. Hopefully we can get into positions where we are leading the whole way.
“We’ve got a very young team. We have a couple of 20-year-olds and three or four who are still under 18. Some of the girls they are playing against have been playing in higher leagues and are dropping back to the one we are playing in, whereas this is sort of the first stepping stone for some of my girls who are on the way up.”
The Devils’ late season revival isn’t over yet with Werribee aiming for at least one win from its final two games of the season.
They will come up against top of the table Coburg and fourth-placed Melbourne University.
“I knew it was there the whole year and it is just a matter of doing it consistently throughout a game,” Lowry said.
